All Is Fair In Love And War
by Black Iris1
Summary: Rated for chapters soon to come! We know you hate character insertion, but we couldn't help ourselves. Aria and Kat, best friends from anti-mutant families, discover their unusual powers adn run to CXSFGY. Our first fic, so R and R or die!
1. Default Chapter

AUTHOR: Black Iris DISCLAIMER: You know the deal. We don't own 'em, we don't have any money, so don't sue us. .Please. NOTE: Sorry, we know everyone hates character insertion, but, in our modest opinions, we think this is rather well written, thank you very much, so live with it. Or we'll shoot you. (Read and understand.) Six months after X- 2.  
  
CHAPTER 1: Discovery  
  
Kathrynne Cassaway sighed deeply as she lowered her forehead onto the cool pages of her Latin textbook. Try as she might, there was just no room in her head for all of the vocabulary and the grammar required for the advanced placement Latin V course. With the final exam tomorrow, things did not look good. Kathrynne lifted her head from the page; it stuck to her skin from the humidity. The heat was not helping her concentration much. She tugged another vocabulary sheet, already covered with red correct marks. Iaceo, Iacere. To.to.she thought. To throw? She cautiously turned the sheet over. To lie down. Wrong again. With a scream of frustration she hurled the heavy textbook into the wall-she wasn't getting anywhere. She would never be able to memorize all this-even if she stayed up all night.  
She exhaled sharply, and glared down at the hated book, which had fallen open to pages 102 and 103. She loathed it, she despised it. She would have liked nothing more at that moment than to have it out of her life forever, and she couldn't find enough reason in herself to tell stop blaming an inanimate object for her own incompetence. She had failed, she just couldn't do it. She wanted the book to be destroyed, to just die.  
The Latin book exploded in a ball of fire, the charred remains of the pages drifting down to the pale pink carpeting of her bedroom. Kathrynne's eyes widened, and her hand flew to her mouth. She sat erect on the bed, in shock. What had she done?  
  
* * *  
  
"Damned fucking. thing! AAAAAAAAARGHHH!" Her hands slammed down on either side of her text book. Aria Bendell was mad, and everyone knew it.  
"Aria! Don't use that language in this house! We've had this conversation!" A frustrated sigh followed the high-pitched words up the stairs. "Now. Don't you want to place AP Chem?" The doorknob began to turn on Aria's bedroom door.  
"Mother, you open that door and you die," she warned. The knob stopped turning. Footsteps thumped back down the stairs. "Good fucking riddance," she whispered to herself.  
She tried to concentrate, tried to keep her attention on the words before her, but for some odd reason, they kept slipping in and out of focus. Sighing with weariness, she stood and padded into her bathroom. Maybe there was something in her eye.  
The marble countertop felt comforting and cool beneath her sweating hands; this summer heat was tearing her mind into a thousand pieces. She lifted her head slowly, wincing as the taught muscles across her neck and shoulders strained in vain to keep her upright. Something was pulling her down; gravity seemed to have increased upon her body. Perspiration broke out on her face and down her spine as she involuntarily sunk to the tiled floor. Or she thought she did.  
Her eyes finally opened. Before her was. nothing. She was. missing, honestly. She tried to lift her hand in front of her face to find a slight shadow in the shape of her arm rise instead. She looked into the mirror over her sink to discover That her whole body was the same way. Looked down at the floor. For some reason, her shoes and socks hadn't evaporated along with the rest of her clothes. She was still wearing her signature floor- length black skirt and halter-top, maroon today, but her boots sat, uninhabited, on her bathroom floor.  
Tears rose to her eyes, but she pushed them back quickly, swallowing the rising lump in her throat. She turned all her energy towards getting herself back together, and discovered, much to her delight, that it wasn't difficult in the least. And it didn't even hurt! She smiled slightly to herself. this could be very cool.  
.But wait. What about her family? Her friends? The smile fell from her face as quickly as it had appeared, and the tears made themselves evident as the fingers of her right hand began to disappear again. It seemed that though it was no problem bringing herself together again, keeping herself that way was another matter. Her body seemed to want to stay. what, exactly? Invisible? No, because there was still a faint, vague outline of a human body. Shadow. She wanted to stay shadow. Things were not as good as she had first supposed.  
  
* * *  
  
Kathrynne didn't know what to do. She has just...destroyed something. With her mind. Which meant she was...no. It couldn't be. She would lose everything. Everything she had ever known would shun her. Her parents. Her friends. Her school. There was no way. She almost refused to believe it. .But something was there. In the back of her mind. Lurking. Could she really be a...mutant? The word sounded alien, even in her own head. She had to be sure. Maybe there was a mistake, this was all some cruel joke. Maybe she had fallen asleep studying, and dreamed of destroying the Latin book. She would wake up safe on her bed, the cloying summer heat and impending test notwithstanding. She had to wake up from this horrible nightmare. She raised her hand to her shoulder and raked her fingernails down her arm as hard as she could, hoping the pain would deliver her out of this terrifying false reality. She shut her eyes and counted to ten, telling her self that when she opened them again she would be normal, just Kathrynne Cassaway, not some freak who could destroy textbooks with a mere thought. She cautiously opened one eye.  
The blackened pages of her Latin book, the burned corners of the paper curling up from the heat, stared her in the face. She looked down at her arm; blood welled up in four long lines. This was real. She ran her finger up one of the scratches, and stared at the blood pooled on her finger, fascinated. The pain felt distant, unreal, like the rest of her life. She looked down at the four scratches again. Wait-three scratches. Why were there only three scratches? She turned her hand over; there were crimson stains on four of her fingernails. So why were there only three scratches? She tentatively touched the third angry red line; the blood had begun to drip in a tiny river making its way toward her elbow. She watched as her skin merged before her eyes. In a matter of seconds, all that remained of the scratch was a faint pink line. In a few more seconds, it was as good as new. She had just healed herself. She was now sure of it; she was a mutant. Oh, my God.  
  
* * *  
  
She had to do something. Had to get out. She'd wanted to for a long time, now she had a valid excuse. But who to tell? Anybody? Anyone at all? Though she'd always worn the "me-against-the-world" façade pretty well, she wasn't like that at all on the inside. God, no. She knew it was going into pop psychology, but there was small child residing in her walled heart, and the only who was ever allowed to see that little girl, the only one allowed inside the wrought iron gates, was the other side of her coin. Kathrynne Cassaway. If anyone would should know, deserved to know, it was Kat.  
Aria drew a shuddering breath into her shaking frame, literally pulled herself together, and slipped back into her room. Her midnight hair, tipped with fire-engine red, flowed down to her waist and spilled over her shoulders as she flopped onto her bed and tugged her phone to her. Her fingers flew over the keypad in the memorized pattern of Kat's number. As she listened to the ringing, she thought of what she had to do.  
Parents couldn't know - they didn't deserve it. They'd shove her out of the door quicker than she could get herself out. Other friends? What other friends? All of her teachers wouldn't care enough. Plus, it wasn't like they could do anything, anyway. They wouldn't want to. Though they all promoted equality, it didn't take a rocket scientist (or even average intelligence) to figure out that none of them actually believed it. Boyfriend? She'd never had one. Never had wanted one, either. Her mind was made up. She would run away to Westchester, New York. Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She heard about it when one of her classmates, Alex Brown, had left in the middle of last year. Apparently she was telekinetic.  
The other end of the line picked up, and Kat's shaking voice answered tentatively.  
  
* * *  
  
What could she do? Everyone she knew was anti mutant. Her parents, her teachers, her friends all agreed with senator Kelly-mutants and humans didn't belong together. She had heard the acid whispers of speculating parents, the rumors that a girl who had left her school in late November was a mutant who had run away from home. She vividly remembered overhearing the mothers of her school friends talking amongst themselves at a field hockey game.  
"Good riddance," one mother had said, quietly so others wouldn't hear. She hadn't know Kathrynne had bent to pick up a paper cup underneath the bleachers. "We don't want one of them associating with our children."  
Kathrynne remembered clearly how the woman had said "them": she had practically been spitting venom. These people would never accept her for what she was. There was only one person that she could think of who would understand. She reached for the phone on her night table, preparing to call her best friend, the best friend who was like a sister to her. The only person who would understand. She needed to contact Aria.  
Suddenly, the phone vibrated under her fingers, the shrill ring cutting into her thoughts like her fingernails had cut into her arm a moment ago. She had forgotten her arm in the wake of the new knowledge; the blood was drying, still tacky on her pale skin. She jumped, and pressed the "talk" button. "H-hello?" she said shakily. The hand that held the phone trembled.  
"Kat? I need to tell you something." Aria's usually strong voice sounded as weak and faltering as her own.  
"Me too."  
  
* * *  
. "So what should we do?" Kat asked, her voice slightly obscured by telephone static. They'd both told the other what had happened, and had both let out subconsciously held breaths when they discovered that the other was just like her.  
"I have absolutely no idea."  
"That's awfully helpful."  
"Thank you."  
"Seriously, now." Frustrated sighs, discarded ideas, and rare, mirthless laughter toppled one over the other for the better part of an hour until the two friends decided on a plan of action.  
"Ok," said Aria. "One more time. So. I pack, you pack. Two suitcases each, tops."  
"Which I'm not very happy about."  
"But which you're going to live with, or I'll shoot you."  
"Right."  
"Then, at precisely eleven twenty-five, I sneak out of my house with the car keys, and steal the Jeep."  
"Which is a shitty car."  
"But which you're going to live with, or I'll shoot you."  
"Right."  
"You are on your front step at midnight on the dot with your suitcases and no cops courtesy of your lovely parents, you hop in car, and we drive to New York."  
"Right." They sighed and paused for a moment.  
"So I'll see you then."  
"Yeah." Another pause. Then, simultaneously, "Bye." 


	2. Arrival

AUTHOR: Black Iris DISCLAIMER: We don't own 'em, save Aria and Kat. You know the deal. NOTE: We're gonna try to keep this thing going quickly, so hopefully the next chapter will have a lot more happening. This was basically a get-to- know-you chapter. Hope you like - R and R! RESPONSES: Thanks so much for all the reviews! We forget who said it, but yes, Magneto will be in this! Hopefully within the next two chapters. Or so.  
  
"To take or not to take?" she muttered to herself, gazing about her spacious bedroom. Too spacious, really. The king-sized bed covered in expensive silk sheets failed to make a dent in the vast chasm that was Aria's room. The hand-carved bureau, a beautiful dark oak, rested against the right wall, odds and ends scattered about the surface. A hand mirror, her great-grandmother's, leaned upright by itself. She smiled slightly to herself and tip-toed her way over to the relic. Picked it up lovingly in her hand and traced the outline gently with her thankfully solid finger. "Hi," she whispered to her reflection. "You've really done it this time, huh?" A forlorn sigh. "Oh, well. You'll get through this, old girl." A pause. "I didn't mean that you really are an old girl, it's just an expression. Nineteen isn't old." Another pause. "Why am I having this conversation with you?" She chuckled to herself and put the mirror in her duffel. It was the only thing in there. One hour and countless sighs later (she seemed to be doing that an awful lot lately) found Aria with only one duffel bag full. Deciding what to bring wasn't her problem; she just didn't want to bring anything. She wanted to go away and never come back. To block these last nineteen years from her mind. To forget. But she knew it could never happen, so the ideal was pushed to the side. For the moment, anyway. All that sat in her suitcase at present were four skirts (identical to the one she was currently wearing but different colors), six shirts (also identical but with various patterns and such), underwear, and the mirror. Shoes and socks were conspicuously absent. The second duffel, considerably smaller, lay empty beside first in the middle of the bed. Aria stood over it, glaring. "And what exactly am I supposed to do with you?" she asked it, not caring that most of her conversations today tended to happen between herself and inanimate objects. With an angry exhale, she kicked the side of her bed and whirled around to face the wall, her arms crossed over her chest. Great: now she was trying to show hostility to a duffel bag. She'd been standing at the edge for years, but now she'd finally jumped. Huzzah. Because her parents were too wealthy for their own good and, simply, bad parents, they had tried to bribe Aria into being a good child with presents and gifts since her birth. Fortunately, she hadn't bought it. Strong-willed from day one, Aria had never really wanted anything her parents had given her. (Besides her black Jeep Wrangler, of course.) Over the years, her parents had stopped the what had been steady flow of gifts, and they had gradually grown to ignore her completely. Her father would still insist that they all have dinner together every night at precisely seven thirty, but it wasn't as if they ever talked. If Aria was the only one to show for dinner, she knew that her parents were, once again, off another vacation. Her father was very business, and her mother very social, so their vacations had become longer and closer together, their time at home or with Aria shorter and fewer between. Not that she cared.  
  
* * *  
  
Kathrynne wandered around her small bedroom in a daze, halfheartedly picking things up, gazing at them blankly, and putting them down again. An empty duffel bag sat on her bed, it's open flap gaping at her like the mouth of a certain young woman who had just discovered she was a mutant. A brick red plastic suitcase was already full to bursting of clothing, and she was trying to decide which items she wanted to bring with her as she left her old life. Her hand swept over the white wooden shelves and caught on the little pewter statue of a fairy with beautiful multicolored butterfly wings. Her aunt had given it to her for her first Holy Communion in second grade. She took it off the shelf and held the tiny figurine in the palm of her hand, examining the features carved into the diminutive face. She rotated it to the side, so that the wings caught the light, shining in countless different hues. She reached up to put it back on the shelf, but then remembered how her face had shown with childish delight when she had first beheld it, and carefully placed it into one of the side pockets of the bag. A strand of wavy blonde hair worked its way out of her ponytail and lay across her face. She tucked it behind her ear-a gesture that had become automatic for her-and surveyed her shelves. At this rate, she would far exceed the two suitcase quota; she couldn't take everything. She would have to make some sacrifices. Only take gifts that meant a lot to her. She looked around again and sighed. This was going to take a long, long time. She put the packing issues aside for now; she had bigger problems. Such as, what to tell her parents. As of yet, her parents cared about her, so she was luckier than Aria in that respect, but she might be in Aria's situation if her parents found out. She had always spent a lot of time with her parents-baking with her mom, going into New York City with her dad. She even had a good relationship with her brother, three years her junior, even though they were as different as night and day. But now that everything had changed, now that her world had been shattered, her family would never accept her. She was in the middle of trying to decide what to do when she absentmindedly checked her watch. Eleven fifty-five. She made one last sweep of the bedroom, grabbing a six favorite books, a scruffy orange and white stuffed cat that she had been given when she was born, and her portable CD player. She was almost to the door when, on impulse, she dumped the contents of her jewelry box into the other side pocket of her duffel. She tiptoed past her parents room, and scribbled on a sheet of paper "I have to leave. I love you" and taped it to the coffee maker, where she knew someone would find it. She heard Aria's jeep pull up, and shut the front door behind her. She only realized she was crying as she stepped onto her front porch.  
* * *  
  
Aria glanced around her room one last time. The second duffel was finally ready to go; she'd decided upon her ten favorite books (taking up most of the bag), a few CD's along with her walk-man, the eight journals that catalogued her life up to this point including the half-filled most recent one, her three fountain pens and their respective ink wells, and (she was almost ashamed of her sentimentality) her stuffed teddy bear. Nodding her head in a determined gesture, she threw one of the duffels over her shoulder using the longer strap, and picked the other one up in her hand. She turned off her lights and closed her door. Quietly descended the stairs. Picked up the car keys from beside the back door and slipped out. Cold grass on her bare feet as she hurried across the acres of back yard to where she'd hidden her Jeep in the woods. (She hadn't wanted to risk waking up her parents with the whirring engine.) Then suddenly, she wasn't running anymore. She was floating. She grinned as the wind carried her where she wanted to go. It was feeling of complete freedom, something she never wanted to stop. The voice in the back of her mind told her that she should stop this, literally pull herself together before she became too caught up in this feeling, but the rest of her body was in paradise. An obnoxious beeping noise caused her molecules to clump together and fall to the ground.  
"Damned watch!" she said viciously, hitting the said object against the soft earth. "Fuck." She wearily hauled herself upright and walked the rest of the way to her car, marveling at the fact that her bags had dissipated along with the rest of her.  
Once on the highway and a considerable distance from her dreaded house, she let out the breath she had subconsciously been holding in, and switched the radio on full blast. Her head nodded in time to the pulsing beat as she flew down the road, driving in the middle of the road twenty miles over the speed limit. She was at Kat's house at midnight precisely with no trouble.  
  
* * *  
  
Kat swung her duffel bags into the back seat of Aria's Jeep and climbed over the runner into the shotgun, wiping the last of the tears from her hazel eyes. Aria gave her a slightly sympathetic look that was, for the most part, condescending. Kat glared back. They held the position for a moment, then both smiled and leaned in for a quick reassuring hug.  
"Let's get this show on the road," Aria whispered. Kat mutely nodded and didn't take her eyes off her house, her old life, until they turned the corner.  
The night was young, and Aria wanted to party. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins; she was completely and totally in the "road trip" mood. An odd feeling for her, truthfully. Kat, however, just couldn't bring herself to be happy. The lump in her throat hadn't completely disappeared, and fond memories of her family kept racing through her head. Finally, Aria switched off the radio. It was two thirty in the morning.  
"Look, Kat, I know you didn't want to go, but."  
"I know," she interrupted. She was not in the mood for one of Aria's "I'm going to try to understand your point of view" talks.  
"I."  
"Just don't, okay? Just don't."  
The rest of the trip concluded in silence.  
  
* * *  
  
The gates of Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters opened automatically, and the Jeep pulled into the circular driveway.  
"Get your stuff. I'll park someplace and come back."  
"Yeah," Kat said, kicking open her door and hopping out onto the pavement. She reached back in to grab her bags, and waited as Aria pulled away before walking up to the big front door. "Well," she thought, "this is going to be interesting." Aria joined her a few minutes later, carrying her own bags. A long pause followed.  
"Do you think I should go in for a second and take a look around?" Aria asked, moving to set down her things.  
"No!" Kat said quickly, dropping her own duffel and latching onto Aria's upper arm. A short pause. "I mean, um, isn't it kind of late? I don't want to inconvenience anyone." She trailed off as Aria looked at her.  
"Well, fuck them!"  
"Shhhhhhhhh!" Kat whispered furiously, pressing her finger to her lips. Aria chuckled and raised a skeptical eyebrow, but quieted her voice nonetheless.  
"Fine. We go in together."  
"Should we?"  
"Yes. On the count of three."  
"Aria."  
"Three." And with that, Aria pushed open the double doors with her free hand. Her face fell slack for a moment. "Wow," she said with a smile, "that was pretty cool. It wasn't locked!"  
"I can't believe we're doing this."  
"Oh, come on," Aria said, pulling her friend into the foyer. Kat's footsteps echoed on the marble floors.  
"Why aren't you wearing shoes?"  
"So you noticed."  
"It would appear so."  
"They don't disappear with the rest of me. But anything I'm touching other that that seems to. The duffels did, anyway."  
"Cool," Kat said.  
"Who are you?"  
The girls whipped around at the intruding voice and breathed identical sighs of relief to find a young boy of about ten or eleven standing before them. "I asked you a question," he said in response to the girls' silence.  
"We're.um.can we talk to the professor?"  
"He's asleep," the boy said slowly, as if talking to the hard of hearing.  
"I told you!" Kat hissed at Aria. Aria ignored her and turned toward the boy.  
"No sh-no kidding," she said, catching herself and shooting a guilty look at Kat. "Can we stay for the night?" The boy gave them a quizzical look, but continued anyway.  
"I guess so. Should I go get the professor anyway?"  
"Oh, no, we don't want to disturb." began Kat, but she was interrupted by Aria.  
"Yeah, sure, that'd be great."  
The boy just stared at them. Then he spoke, "I'll be right back."  
Aria grinned at a scowling Kat, and the two girls waited in the hallway of their new life. 


	3. Breakkfast and a Greeting

AUTHOR: Black Iris DISCLAIMER: Do we have to keep doing this? We don't own them. Get it through your head. NOTE: No one reviewed last time! We were highly upset. .Especially Rose. *Cut to Rose attacking computer and foaming at the mouth* So please review! (Or die.) P.S.: Does anyone have us on their favorite author's list? We're trying to figure out who it is. erm. thank you!  
  
The professor stirred in his sleep. There was something - a presence - tugging at the back of his powerful mind. It felt like another mutant had discovered his or her powers, but something was different. His eyes flew open in the darkness of his bedroom.  
A cold sweat broke out over his body and he struggled to sit upright against the headboard. Both of the girls waiting in his front hall were unique - their powers had never been seen before - but one of them posed a threat. One of them, if he wasn't careful, was going to turn to Magneto. He couldn't let himself loose another one, not after John. It would be too much for the school; others would begin to turn as well.  
With a quiet sigh, Charles Xavier decided to greet his new-comers.  
  
Good morning, girls, he said to their minds.  
"Holy shit!" Aria shouted out loud. "Did you hear that?!" she asked, turning around in circles on the cold marble floor.  
"Of course I heard it," Kat hissed back. "But where's it coming from?"  
I hate to greet you this way, it's so informal, but if you would please follow my instructions, I will guide you to where you need to go.  
Aria and Kat looked at each other in silence for a moment.  
"Erm. lead on?" Aria said, not really having any other options.  
The professor smiled. Though she was the threat, she seemed nice enough. He didn't pry to far into her mind, though - he wanted to leave her some privacy.  
With some wrong turns and lots of persuasion, Charles finally directed Aria and Kathrynne to the older girls' dorm room.  
You can share the king bed at the end of the row on your left. The young woman in the bed next to yours is Rogue. She's very nice, but be sure not to touch her. Her power is. as unique as yours are, but in quite a different way.  
"Whatever you say, Professor," Aria whispered, changing swiftly into her nightshirt.  
Goodnight, girls. I will see you both in the morning.  
"Goodnight, Professor," Kat said sweetly, also changing.  
Aria switched off the bedside lamp, and they both crawled into the bed. Five minutes passed.  
"Aria?" No answer. "Aria?" Silence. "Aria, you might want to pull yourself together."  
"Hmm? Oh, right." She reappeared in midair and floated lightly to the bed. "Goodnight, Kat."  
"Goodnight, Aria."  
Sleep came willingly.  
  
* * *  
  
Rogue had awoken to an odd sight indeed. The bed next to her own, usually empty, had a pretty blonde sleeping peacefully on one side, and the murky shadow of another human floating above the other.  
"Um. hello?" she asked, tentatively poking the blonde with a gloved finger. "Uh. time to get up?"  
The girl suddenly jolted into action, exploding out of the bed and tripping over her feet towards the middle of the room. Her eyes were wild and frightened; she had an odd deer-in-the-headlights look about her. Her dress, a floor-length, spaghetti-strapped, pale-blue nightgown, was tangled about her legs, and her bare feet were spread in a fighter's stance on the hardwood floor.  
During this whole escapade, Rogue had successfully fallen backwards into the bedside table, knocked over the lamp (breaking the light bulb), tripped the phone chord so there was now a dial tone breaking the stifling silence, and woken Aria, who had fallen to the bed once again.  
"I. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you," Rogue fumbled, hurriedly straightening the table and replacing the phone. "It's just that. uh."  
"Don't worry about it," Aria said, slipping from the bed and standing upright. Rogue's eyes widened.  
"You. you're missing a hand."  
"Oh. Right." Aria quickly reassembled her molecules and smiled sweetly at the terrified Mississippian.  
Kat suddenly regained her composure and began muttering apologies, and bent down to her knees to begin sweeping up the shards of light bulb from behind the mahogany night table. "I'm Kat," she murmured, depositing the light bulb fragments into the waste paper basket.  
"Aria," her friend said, smiling at Rouge and looking around the room. It was spacious, with dark green walls and crimson shades. A dark wood closet stood in one corner. Aria reached for her bag and began rummaging through it, pulling out one of her trademark floor-length black skirts and a dark red halter top with silver flame patterns.  
Rouge was still quite shaken, but she still managed to say, with minor dignity, "Breakfast will be ready soon. Do you want me to show you down?"  
Aria smiled, now dressed. "Sure!"  
Kat and Rouge headed for the door, but Aria lagged behind. Kat stopped in the doorway. "You coming?" she asked, then blinked in shock. All that remained of Aria was her upper torso. Legs were conspicuously absent.  
"Er." Aria gestured with one hand to her missing lower body. "Don't wait for me. I'll be down in a second.just let me get this under control,"  
Rouge and Kat left for the cafeteria, laughing, as Aria wrestled with herself to pull her molecules together. She sighed; this was going to be a problem.  
  
* * *  
  
Rouge entered the dining hall with Kat right behind her. Kat was astonished at the vast array of people seated at the various tables. She hadn't known that there were this many mutants in the world, let alone the United States. She followed Rouge to a table in the corner and sat down as Rouge began to make introductions.  
Rouge inclined her head toward a boy about their age, with robin's egg blue eyes and hair the color of caramel. "This is Bobby." she said. Kat thought that this "Bobby" was actually kind of cute. Bobby smiled at her, and she smiled back. Just then, his fried egg spontaneously combusted, splattering him and everyone at the table with egg yolk. Kat turned scarlet.  
"I'm so sorry.I haven't really gotten a hold of my powers yet." she rushed, handing him a napkin. Bobby just laughed.  
".my boyfriend." Rouge finished. Kat nodded. Damn. Taken. She looked around the table and noticed Aria was still missing.  
  
* * *  
  
Aria muttered darkly to herself. She'd tried six damned times to leave the bedroom as a whole, but her legs just didn't seem to want to cooperate. The cool thing was, she could still move around without them, kind of like she was flying. She had also discovered that when she was totally. erm. "dissolved", she didn't have to rely on a breeze to carry her about; she could basically fly on her own. But that wasn't going to help her get down to breakfast in a presentable manner.  
Finally, on her eighth attempt, Aria managed to keep herself together. She tip-toed lightly down the hallway, her skirt swishing out behind her. She twisted the jade ring on the middle finger of her right hand nervously - for some reason, she felt like she was being watched. Walking faster, she heard quiet footsteps behind her. She stopped suddenly and whirled around. Before her stood a man.  
He was tall, a little over six feet, with dark hair in a never-before- seen cut, and piercing, cold eyes. He stopped walking when she did, and now he just stood before her, looking at her expectantly.  
"You want to tell me who you are?" he asked, his deep voice reverberating through the hallway.  
"No, but if you care to tell me, there'll be no complaints," Aria replied icily. The man narrowed his eyes. Aria took a moment to take in his whole figure.  
He was rather buff, really - his biceps and shoulders looked about as big as her waist. He was wearing dark jeans with, she noted with a bit of a smirk, a slight flare at the bottoms, a patterned button-down shirt with the top two undone, and a black leather jacket. All in all, he wasn't that bad looking, but Aria would never admit that to anyone but herself. And maybe Kat. Plus, she reminded herself, he's an ass.  
"Look, you really don't want to mess with me."  
"Oh, really?"  
"Yeah. Just give me your name. Are you one of the two who came in last night?"  
"So you've spoken to the Professor, then."  
"It would appear so."  
"Then yes. I am one of the girls. My name is Aria."  
"Shadow?"  
". Come again?"  
"The Professor called you Shadow."  
"Did he, now?" Aria raised an eyebrow.  
"Yeah."  
"Well, I guess I can live with that."  
"Do you eat?"  
"I would, if I could find the cafeteria."  
"I'll show you."  
"No, that's all right. I'm a big girl; I can handle myself."  
"You're missing a foot."  
Aria glanced down and blushed slightly. Keeping her cool, she lifted her eyes.  
"Yeah, well, new powers and all. You know how it is."  
"Uh."  
"So what did you say your name was?" she asked, cutting him off.  
"Wolverine. Logan."  
"Well, it was nice to meet you, Logan. See you around." And with that, she disappeared completely and floated smoothly down the hall towards the muted voices that could only come from the dining hall.  
  
* * *  
  
Kat had been eating her cereal and quietly laughing with the others at her table when Aria had materialized behind her.  
"Boo," she whispered. Kathrynne shrieked and jumped up from the table, successfully shooting a small ball of energy into the air.  
"Wow, Kat, never knew you were this jumpy," Aria mused from her position off to the right from her friend. Kat, her hand pressed to her chest and panting heavily from surprise, picked herself up off the floor.  
"Don't do that!" she said, collapsing back into her chair. Aria, however, ignored her and moved onto other things. She noticed Bobby sitting across the table; he was looking at her rather oddly.  
"What, you never saw anyone materialize?"  
"Other than Nightcrawler? No. And that's not even the same," he said, still looking skeptical. Aria was obviously confused, so he shook his head as if to say, "Forget it."  
"You have, um," Aria said, indicating a piece of egg still on Bobby's face. He managed a weak smile as Rogue wiped it off with a napkin. Aria raised an eyebrow and sat down next to Kathrynne.  
"So where were you?" Kat asked once she had finished eating. Aria, who was eyeing the last blueberry muffin on the table, quickly snatched it out of Bobby's reach; he had been going for it, too. Aria chewed a bite off the top.  
"Well, after I finally got my legs to stay in their respective places, I was walking down the hall and I met this ass of a guy. L- something."  
"Logan?" Bobby and Rogue asked simultaneously.  
"That's the one."  
"He's not an ass," Rogue protested, but Bobby simply chuckled to himself. "You just have to. get used to him. He grows on you, I promise!"  
Aria raised an eyebrow as she finished off her muffin.  
"Come on, guys," Bobby said. "The Professor's gonna be here any minute." Kat looked at him questioningly. "He likes to talk to us for a while after breakfast and before classes. Says it lets him get to know us better."  
The four turned their attention to the front of the dining hall, where Charles Xavier himself had just wheeled in.  
  
* * *  
  
"Good morning," he said, his voice slightly amplified by a small microphone in his hand. There was a low rumbling reply from the students. "I see you're not all quite fully awake yet, but I would like to present two people to you. They are new to our school; they came last night, as a matter of fact. Aria? Kathrynne? Please stand."  
Aria stood dutifully and smiled slightly as the others, but Kat seemed to be frozen in her seat. Aria tugged her up by her elbow; Kat had never been good with being called on in public unexpectedly. Kathrynne finally rose fully and cracked a small smile. The Professor spoke again.  
"Everyone, meet Aria Bendell and Kathrynne Cassaway. They graduated from their own high schools before coming here; they will be staying with us for an undetermined time. I ask that you all be your lovely selves and welcome them." He smiled warmly at the two girls as they sat back down.  
  
* * *  
  
"Kat? Aria? I'd like to meet with you briefly in my office, please." The Professor had found them after breakfast had finished, and was now leading them down yet another identical hallway. Kat's boots clicked on the floor, but Aria made no noise at all. She was floating; her feet didn't want to stay solid for some reason.  
They turned into a large room with an office desk (no chair, obviously), book shelf-lined walls full of thick volumes, and the same crimson drapes over the floor-ceiling windows that graced the entire school. The Professor wheeled himself behind his desk and faced the girls, who sat in two identical chairs.  
"When you came to us last night, I felt something different about you, but I couldn't seem to place it. As you already know, I am psychic, so it was rather odd sensation, not begin able to know something about someone at will, but now I know what it was. Could you each, in turn, describe to me exactly what your mutations are?"  
The girls merely looked at each other and back at the Professor. He smiled.  
"Kathrynne, you may go first."  
"Well, I don't really know. I discovered my powers by accidentally incinerating my Latin textbook," (this inspired a small chuckle from the Professor) "and I can heal." Then she added as an afterthought, "I also made Bobby's eggs explode, if that helps you."  
"So. you can concentrate energy? At least, that's what it sounds like to me," said the Professor. "Can you heal others?"  
"Well, I don't really know."  
"Ow!" Aria yelped. She had just purposefully bitten her hand until it bled. "No time like the present to find out, right?" Kat eyed her suspiciously.  
"You are so weird." But, nevertheless, Kat reached out her index finger and gently touched Aria's wounded hand. Nothing happened.  
"Try again," the Professor said quietly. "Concentrate the energy."  
Slowly, Aria's skin fused back together and her pain subsided. When Kat pulled her hand away, the only trace left of Aria's wound was the small trickle of blood that had escaped. Aria wiped this on the hip of her skirt.  
"That was cool," she commented, examining her previously-injured hand. The Professor smiled widely.  
"There. I knew it was something like that. So, Kathrynne, that's what you can do. Concentrate energy. I am impressed. I have never seen anything quite like it." Kat blushed furiously under the Professor's praise.  
"Thank you, Professor."  
"And you, Aria?" he continued.  
"Well, erm. as you probably already noticed, I turn invisible. Well, not really. I sort of. dissipate. My molecules separate, but I can somehow keep them together with my. separated. mind." she trailed off. "It's confusing. I can also float along without the help of a breeze."  
"Well, well," mused the Professor, looking at the girls, "you are very unique. I have never seen either of your powers, to tell you the truth. I just. I just want you to be careful."  
"Careful about what?" Aria asked. The forever inquiring.  
"There is another mutant you should know about. His name is Magneto, and he believes that there is a war coming between humans and mutants. He wants to kill all the humans. Everywhere. His mutation is that he can control metal and magnetic fields, so if you see something similar, I want you to promise me that you will stay clear of it."  
Kat nodded vigorously, eager to stay away from danger, but Aria was skeptical. She didn't agree, but didn't voice any opposing thoughts she might have been having. The Professor noted this, but didn't make a scene about it. He would keep his eye on her. 


End file.
